"All right, in you go! Come on, now!" Blynn was having trouble getting the Fire Mote back into the lantern, as it obviously wanted to stay where there was fuel enough for it to make a large blaze.
Hyren watched in amusement, while out of the corner of his eye he made sure to observe where Terra was aiming her strikes during their after-breakfast sparring, so he could halfheartedly respond with the appropriate blocks. Without warning, however, she slowed down and his attention was drawn back to her.
The girl was doubled over, clutching her stomach, making Hyren's antennae jerk back in alarm. "What's wrong?" he asked her.
"I dunno… my stomach hurts," she said. "I didn't get a lot of sleep last night…"
"Nightmares?" Hyren asked. He began to worry that she'd overheard his and Blynn's conversation.
Thankfully, she shook her head. "No… I just need to get out of here…"
With a sigh, he stowed his sword and patted her shoulder. "Make sure you're drinking enough water." Whether by some power of the Faeries or the ingenuity of builders, the little band of explorers had found a few channels of running water in the vast complex. It really was a marvel of engineering, Hyren mused to himself as Terra squeezed out a gulp from her canteen. One more story to add to his repertoire. Although he didn't know if he'd ever again meet anyone willing to listen to his stories.
"Gotcha!" Blynn said, using a piece of wood to scoop the Fire Mote into the lantern before slamming the window shut. The little elemental buzzed around its metal container for a moment, but finally settled down to sulk and brood over the wood chip Blynn had left for it. "Okay," the Zafara said, "let's head out."
"We're very close," Hyren said as he ushered the girls down the next passage. Terra's pace was even slower than it had been the day before. If she got any worse, he would have to carry her, he decided.
Before that could happen, however, Blynn turned the corner ahead of him and stopped. "Light!" she shouted, jumping up and down. "I see light!"
Terra perked up immediately, and Hyren followed her to see something he felt like he'd nearly forgotten existed: cold blue daylight dimly reflected on floor tiles.
"Let's go!" Terra said, running forward.
"Be careful!" Hyren called after her, jogging to catch up. "I don't know what's around that corner!" It had occurred to him from seeing the cobwebs yesterday that the closer they got to the surface, the more likely it was that other, larger things could be making these ruins their home.
Thankfully, his long legs quickly carried him to Terra's and Blynn's position. They rounded the corner, and then another, and then—
"Whoa…" Terra gasped, craning her neck at the sight in front of them.
The passageway terminated at a vast hall, comparable in size to the throne room. On the opposite wall was a series of lofty windows letting down vast shafts of sunlight, blinding after how much time Hyren had spent with firelight alone. He blinked, throwing up his arm to shade his eyes.
"Wow, that's a lotta sand," Blynn said, attaching the lantern to her backpack.
When Hyren's eyes had finished adjusting to the light, he got a closer look at the room and realised the floor was covered entirely in sand, gently rippled by the chill breeze whipping in through the windows, which made Terra hug her cloak tighter around her shoulders. The walls were covered in frescoes, but the figures and scenes were strangely cut off halfway when they hit the sand, and the three explorers stood at the top of a staircase that seemed to descend straight into the dune-covered floor. There were no other doorways visible.
"This room's been half-filled with sand," Hyren realised aloud.
"Oh, man…" Terra's shoulders sagged in defeat and she eyed the windows despairingly.
Hyren supposed they were built to be high off the floor to begin with, but even with a portion of the room being filled in, the windows were still out of reach. "We can probably climb up to them," he said, pointing to the elaborate stonework. "It's a good thing these Neopets seemed to be fond of decoration. Come on!" With a wave of his arm he urged them forward, stepping out onto the cold sand after them.
Terra perked up even more. "We're… we're gonna make it," she said, her pack jangling merrily as her hiking boots pounded into the miniature dunes. "We're almost there!"
"Yahoooo!" Blynn's whoop echoed off the stone walls as she bounded after her owner.
Hyren grinned as he tramped after them, although it faded after a moment. Seeing them so happy just ground his own conflict deeper. He could let them go, and they could continue in their innocent joy—or he could give them to Sloth. But he also had his own hide to worry about, he reminded himself. He knew Sloth wouldn't approve if one of his elite commanders returned from a mission without anything to show for it. Especially since Garoo had probably made sure to emphasize that Hyren's supposed demise was due to the Grundo's own incompetence.
A deep rumble beneath the mutant made him pause and look down at his own feet. The sand around them shifted back and forth like it lay on the surface of water. His eyes widened and he glanced up at the girls, who had also stopped and were looking around uneasily.
"Go! Now!" he roared. Two immense mandibles breached the sand below him, carrying him into the air and holding him fast.
Hyren managed to twist around enough to see a gigantic, golden brown, many-segmented body, terminating in large blue eyes and the jaws holding him. The commander writhed in their grip, trying to grab his sword as the creature began to arc downward.
"Hyren!" Terra screamed, drawing her own blade and running toward the beast.
"That's the biggest Lyins I've ever seen!" Blynn said, nocking a piece of ammo in her slingshot and taking aim for the petpet's head.
The sandy floor between her and Terra erupted with a second giant Lyins. It hissed as it drew up in front of the Zafara, its legs undulating as its jagged mandibles clicked together. Blynn let out a yelp and then a cloud of sand obscured her from Hyren's sight.
"Terra, go back!" Hyren barked, finally able to grasp the hilt of his blade. Due to the awkward angle at which the Lyins had him around the waist, he was having difficulty pulling it out of the sheath.
"No!" she said, swinging her sword at the Petpet.
Her weak blows glanced off of its carapace, but it let out a shriek of annoyance and flinched back. Hyren felt its grip on him loosen. He pulled out his sword and struck, causing it to screech and drop him. The Grundo rolled to the floor and popped back up in one fluid motion, blinking away dizziness to see the Lyins eye Terra hungrily. The girl edged away from it with her sword thrust in front of her, coughing on aerated sand.
With a yell, Hyren charged the Petpet, bringing his sword down in a sweeping stroke that connected solidly. The Lyins hissed and recoiled, curling past him and diving back into the sand. Hyren grabbed Terra's shoulders, looking her over to make sure she was unharmed. "It'll be back," he said. "Go! Move! Blynn, where are you?!"
Another ear-piercing screech filled the hall, and the second Lyins rose up in front of them, bucking and writhing as it tried to rid itself of the Zafara clinging to its back. "I—don't—like—this—ride—!" Blynn said.
"Jump!" Terra called, sheathing her sword and stretching out her arms toward her Neopet as the Lyins curved backwards. Pushing off with her hind feet, Blynn launched herself at her owner. Her impact sent the girl staggering back, clutching her Zafara safely.
They turned to the hallway, but one of the Lyins breached the sand between them and the passage. "Get to the window!" Hyren ordered, pushing them toward the far side of the hall. If he'd had more firepower, the Lyins would be no problem, but the three motley travelers were no match for two humongous beasts.
Terra and Blynn stumbled on the unsteady footing as they scrambled toward the windows. Hyren struggled behind them as the two desert Petpets churned up their domain in an attempt to trap their prey. Terra reached the wall first and began to climb, finding easy handholds on the elaborately worked stone. Her adrenaline was doing its job.
One of the Lyins finally re-emerged and rammed the wall with its head. Terra stopped and cringed as bits of the stone crumbled and broke off. Hyren held his breath as she seemed about to fall, but she managed to hold on, and she let go with one hand to draw her sword. Giving a hoarse shout, she struck at the Lyins as it grazed past, pushing it back from Blynn who was now starting her ascent.
Hyren had to whack away the other Lyins before he reached the wall himself. Terra swung her leg over the windowsill and stretched a hand down to Blynn, who scrambled nimbly up the rock face. Chips of stone she kicked loose rained onto the visor of Hyren's helmet as he hoisted himself up.
The room shook, sand flew, and the Lyins shrieked behind him, but they were going to make it, he thought. One more foothold up, and his hand could reach the rim. Just as he took hold of it, a violent tremor rocked the entire wall. Hyren was flung backward onto one of the Lyins, right between its eyes. It began to rise in preparation for another dive into the sands.
"Hyren!" Blynn shouted, taking aim with her slingshot. "Heads up!"
Gulping in breaths, the commander tensed himself in preparation to leap for the window. His injured ankle gave a sudden twinge of pain and slipped out from under him, and he fell flat on the Petpet's carapace just as Blynn fired. The potsherd hurtled through the air, but to Hyren's surprise, it somehow exploded in front of the Lyins' face in a bright display of fireworks.
The beast let out a pained scream, its entire body convulsing and throwing Hyren forward. He took advantage of the momentum to aim himself so he landed gripping the windowsill. His ribs hurt like crazy, but his armour absorbed the brunt of the impact. Looking over his shoulder, he saw both Lyins, their mandibles snapping, swaying as they lifted themselves up to his level.
Two pairs of hands wrapped around his wrists and he glanced up.
"We've got you," Terra said as she and Blynn pulled with all their might.
Utilising their meager strength, Hyren was able to run his feet the rest of the way up the wall. Where he had been dangling a moment previous, a Lyins headbutted, splintering the stone. The world outside was blinding, and Hyren had to will his eyes to stay open as he leaned against the windowsill and tried to get his bearings.
"Down the rocks!" Blynn said, leading him and Terra to a pile of rubble that had built up against the outside rim.
Terra paused halfway down. "Phew… looks like… they can't get to us," she panted. The Lyins, unable to fit through the windows, rammed against the walls in vain.
"Good," Hyren said. The Petpets sunk out of sight and their frustrated screeches gradually faded.
The three of them had emerged on a mountainside, Hyren realised as he carefully picked his way around boulders and jagged shards of granite. This was a much different place than where they had come in. Far from the sunbaked Lost Desert, it was cold and desolate grey stone completely unlike the red rock of the sand-bordered cliffs. As he looked up at the stark mountain face, he saw that there were numerous openings hewn directly into the slopes, undoubtedly other passages and rooms in a subterranean palace complex he hadn't quite fathomed the expanse of. To either side reached a massive range of craggy peaks much like the one they were standing on.
"We must have gone right through the mountains," Terra said, wiping sweat from her brow and looking up at the distant summit, shrouded in snow. "No wonder it took so long to get out."
"And that explains why we were able to reach an exit by descending through the caves," Hyren said, his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. "Those cliffs in the Lost Desert must be at a higher elevation than where we came out."
Blynn turned around. "I wonder where we are now…"
Hyren and Terra followed suit, and Hyren found himself staring out at numberless hills and valleys carpeted with a thick, dark forest, stretching into a thin mist that obscured the horizon and seemed to cling to the treetops like filmy Spyderwebs. A chill wind blew up from the foothills, carrying with it the heavy scent of pine and old growth as well as smells Hyren couldn't quite place but unnerved him somehow.
"The Haunted Woods," Terra said.
"You've been here before?" Hyren tilted his head down toward her.
She clutched her arms. "We don't go here often."
"Why not?"
"Because it's haunted?" Blynn replied, looking up at Hyren like he was thick in the head.
He snorted, placing his hands on his hips. "Well, the dossiers said witches and ghosts live there, but it's all just for show, isn't it? I mean, the witch in the tower gives you candy, for crying out loud."
"Other stuff lives there too," the Zafara said, returning her gaze to the dark forest. "Stuff you don't wanna run into."
Terra sighed, turning her face to the sky. "At least… at least we're finally out of there," she said. "We can see the sun again."
"Yeah," Blynn said, absently adjusting the straps of her pack. An awkward silence followed, interrupted only by the howling mountain winds.
Finally, the Neopet and owner shifted around on the steep slope and looked up at Hyren. "You…" Terra said haltingly. "You aren't really gonna take us to Sloth, are you?"
Hyren swallowed the massive lump in his throat and it seemed to plunge straight to his stomach. This was it. He could either do his job, or save the only two beings he'd ever started to consider friends. His heart felt like it was threatening to pound right out of his chest, and he was trying with all his might to disguise his anxiety, not willing to betray either of them to the turmoil inside. But he also knew he had to answer soon.
Summoning his mental strength, he shoved the doubts and fears into the back of his mind, stared into those two pairs of big, blue, hopeful eyes—and lied. "Of course not," he answered, forcing a smirk onto his face. "The both of you are really more trouble than you're worth, you know that? Considering all you've put me through so far, I don't want to know what kind of headaches you'd cause me out in space."
To his surprise, they hugged him, Terra throwing her arms around his waist while Blynn clung to his leg. "Thank you," Terra said. Her face was buried in his stomach armour, but he could tell from the tone of her voice that she was crying.
"I knew you were a good guy," Blynn said, beaming up at him.
He smiled back, inwardly praising himself for successfully pulling the wool over her eyes. If things had just gotten so much easier for him, then why did he feel even sicker inside? It was the cold air, he decided.
Terra finally pulled away from him, her face streaked with tears. "Can I adopt you?"
Hyren felt his jaw fall slack, and his antennae twitched for a moment before he shook his head. "I appreciate the sentiment," he said, patting her head, "but I'm an independent pet. I can't be tied down to one world like this. I belong out there, among the stars. But I will take the two of you home. Where do you live?"
"Mystery Island," Blynn said.
"Okay. If I remember my maps correctly," Hyren said, "we should head east to the coast and find a port."
Nothing doing, Hyren thought to himself. He needed to find the nearest transport to the Space Station, and he was hopeful that stumbling across civilization would present him with that opportunity. From there, he would have to find some way to get back to Sloth, wherever the doctor was. "So, it's settled, then," the commander continued nonchalantly, cracking his knuckles. "Are you gals up for more walking? We should at least try to make it down the mountain before nightfall."
"Blynn, what are the rules for exploring the Haunted Woods?" Terra asked as they began to move again.
"Never stray from the campfire at night, never leave anyone alone," the Zafara recited, counting off the rules on her paws, "and… don't follow the lights!"
"Good!" The owner smiled. "I'm sure we'll be extra safe since we have Hyren with us."
The look she gave him made his heart sink, but he tried to stay focused, mentally planning out what would transpire once they found a way to the Space Station. The harder he tried to think about it, the more he couldn't. Finally he just gave up.
"Blynn, I didn't know you'd stowed explosives in your ammo pouch," the commander said as he carefully tromped down a spill of loose gravel.
"What?" The Zafara glanced over at him.
"Back there, with those… Lyins, you called them? Those were some great pyrotechnics."
Her muzzle wrinkled. "What are you talking about? That was a regular piece of pottery I shot."
"No it wasn't. It exploded," Hyren said.
"I think I know explosives when I see 'em," Blynn said.
"It was the Faerie magic," Terra said. She pushed her glasses up her nose. "I bet that's what it was. Hyren said your slingshot probably had special properties."
Blynn pulled out the weapon and turned it over in her paws. "Wicked… let's see more fireworks!" Grabbing a handful of ammo, she shot into the air ahead. Absolutely nothing happened, the terracotta remnants merely falling onto the mountainside unceremoniously. "I don't get it…" the Zafara said. "How'd it explode before?"
"Maybe because you were in combat?" Terra said. "It probably senses a great need and that activates the magic. Or something like that. Right?"
She looked up at Hyren, who nodded even though he knew very little of Faerie magic except that it was potent. "Sounds good to me," he replied.
"Well, I'm running low," Blynn said, stooping over to grab handfuls of gravel. "I hope this stuff explodes too."